Team Tomb Combat Robotics

First time I've ever made the annual highlights for a good reason rather than just getting exploded!

The Best of 2023 - Robot Combat UK Compilation of the best and funny moments of the UK fighting robot events Team Panoramic attended during 2023.Includes moments from Antweight World Series, A...

The evolution of Bar Bar Black Sheep

What's next - experimentation with a replacement for toothbrushes, possibly new titanium chassis in the future

The evolution of Vertigo

What's next - new HDPE chassis with interchangable wedges and forks currently under construction

The evolution of Push Comes to Shove

What's next - plans for new HDPE and titanium chassis with interchangable wedges and forks

The evolution of Up the Antie

What's next - plans for new HDPE chassis with titanium flipper

Fun event at ORCS today! Bar Bar Black Sheep won a fight for the first time ever, destroying one Tom's omniwheels and then managing to flick the off switch on his robot - and the front of Up the Antie looks very beaten up now after fighting 3 spinners in succession 😂

So, a rundown of my fights in SCAR today. The event had a fight night format with all robots entering 4 fights before the best robots proceeded to the last 16:

Fight one: Bar Bar Black Sheep vs Jiggery Pokery (an overhead drillbot)
Bar Bar had some steering issues as it started the fight inverted (in order to protect it's polycarbonate lid from Jiggery Pokery's drill) and was pushed around, before one motor broke (this is a common theme), and I tapped out as it wasn't steerable with one motor.

Fight two: Push Comes to Shove vs Spotty Botty (a vertical grabber and tournament winner)
We both pushed each other around a lot, they managed to get a few grabs in, before they finally got a good grab and forced Push out of arena.

Fight three: Up the Antie vs Time for Crab! (a horizontal grabber)
Antie got one flip in, but then Time for Crab! managed to grab Antie and push it around. Antie narrowly avoided being pitted once before finally both fell into the pit together, with Time for Crab! as the aggressor.

Fight four: Bar Bar Black Sheep vs Stuff and Gubbins (a pushbot cluster)
Bar Bar again had control issues as it started inverted again (as the right way up, Stuff and Gubbins were lower than the spinning weapons). Bar Bar got pushed into the corner early on - and then only able to drive along the wall, ended up in pit.

Fight five: Push Comes to Shove vs Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (a very wide pushbot)
Push struggled to push Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee head on, and also struggled to get around the side due to it's width. Push ended up getting pushed around the arena, before finally ending up in pit.

Fight six: Up the Antie vs I Forgor (a horizontal spinner gyrowalker)
I Forgor struggled to move and so Antie pushed it around from the side, before I Forgor's motor overheated and filled the arena with smoke.

Fight seven: Push Comes to Shove vs Revron (a powerful vertical spinner)
Push pushed them around the arena a few times and took a few hits before being pushed into the pit.

Fight eight: Up the Antie vs Sawcon (a vertical spinner)
This turned into a driving battle, with each of us trying to outmanoeuvre each other, before finally being Sawcon pushed Antie into the pit.

Fight nine: Bar Bar Black Sheep vs PLA-ST is a Perfectly Legitimate Choice of Material (a lifter with mechanum wheels)
PLA-ST pushed Bar Bar around, taking some damage to it's wheels (apparently only one was reusable afterwards!), Until Bar Bar had one motor fail and ended up in the pit.

Fight ten: Up the Antie vs Big Loader (a tracked lifter)
We pushed each other around (mainly with Antie being the aggressor). Antie managed to get some flips in before finally throwing Big Loader out of the arena.

Fight eleven: Push Comes to Shove vs Immovable Object (a pusher)
Immovable Object's forks get straight underneath Push's wedge and pushed it around and out of the arena.

Fight twelve: Bar Bar Black Sheep vs Verty Little Secret (a horizontal spinner)
Verty Little Secret withrew and Bar Bar won by default.

Overall:
Up the Antie - 2W, 2L - I think this is the only result that reflects performance
Push Comes to Shove - 0W, 4L - I felt this robot actually did okay, it just had a tough draw
Bar Bar Black Sheep - 1W, 3L - this is misleadingly good as the win was a walkover!

I was pleased with how well Antie and Push stood up against Revron and Sawcon, both only taking minor damage (Antie's damage from Sawcon is shown in the picture). It was frustrating that Bar Bar's motor kept stopping mid fight, but I found it was caused by a missing C clip. I need to improve the controllability of Bar Bar, especially when inverted, and change the dodgy motor - but it is at least faster than before. Push's chassis seems a bit twisted now, and I think it might need a rebuild - but I'll probably focus on the new Vertigo first.

Ready for SCAR - Steel City Antweight Robots tomorrow...

Return of the 🐑!

The new version of Bar Bar Black Sheep is ready in time for SCAR!

The footage from Saturday's event in Oxford:

ORCS1 - Antweights Taking place on Saturday 3rd June 2023 at The Tap Social Movement on the Curtis Industrial State of Oxford in Oxfordshire and hosted by the Oxford Robot Comb...

Good event at Oxford today. For an event in which I didn't plan to enter Up the Antie, it had a lot of action - and I've never won anything before!

So at the pre event tech checks I was pleased Vertigo span up and was working again, but was then shocked to find that Push Comes to Shove didn't turn on! With the short gap before the event starting I decided to withdraw Push Comes to Shove and enter Up the Antie instead.

First up was the main event, with each robot fighting 5 random battles and the best 8 qualifying for the finals.

My first fight was Up the Antie Vs Twisted Lifter (a lifter). This had a bit of pushing either way, before I pushed them out of the arena into the pit.

Next up was ‌Vertigo Vs Relativity (a spinner). This fight was very short as Vertigo took one huge hit that threw it across the arena in a one hit KO. On inspecting it after the fight I found that the side panel and weapon supports had been torn away from the chassis (see picture!). I tried to bodge fix this by welding the plastic with a soldering iron, however when spun up in the test box it ripped itself apart again as the fix was not able to withstand the forces from the spinning weapon. I decided that it was not easily fixable and withdrew Vertigo from the rest of the event.

My next fight was ‌Up the Antie Vs Delta V (a spinner). I initially pushed them around and seemed on top, before they got in a hit from behind and threw the robot from the arena. On initial inspection Up the Antie seemed fine, although I then found that the gears in the right motor had been bent inside the motor so this needed to be replaced.

‌Next up was Up the Antie Vs The Golden Nuggets They Taste Yee Haw Conspiracy to Commit Mass Murder (a lifter). We generally pushed each other around the arena before I finally pushed them out and into the pit.

Then ‌Up the Antie fought Fragile (a spinner). I pushed them around before flipping them out of the arena.

My final fight in the competition was ‌Up the Antie Vs Shapash (a spinner). There was a bit of pushing and they got in a few hits before leaving Up the Antie upside down next to the pit, and Up the Antie fell in whilst trying to self right.

Result:
Up the Antie - W3, L2
Vertigo - L1, withdrawn

The next competition was the unusual non spinner event "Robot Roulette". Every team entered a robot and a driver, and then each driver drew a robot (literally) out of a hat to select which they would drive (not their own).

I drew Epic Flail which fought GMC. We pushed each other around before I got stuck in a wall, freed and then knocked upside down against a wall.
‌
The driver of Up the Antie had a little more success, first beating Chewdas Priest by pushing them around the arena and out, before losing in a threeway battle after being flipped, grabbed, and pitted.

Result:
Epic Flail - Round 1
Up the Antie - Round 2

The final event was The Rumble, featuring approximately 20-25 robots in the arena at the same time. I was surprised to find that Up the Antie was the last robot standing!

Result:
Up the Antie - winner

Overall, I was impressed how much of an improvement to Up the Antie's ability to get under other robots the small changes I made to the flipper had, and Push Comes to Shove seems to have one connection that has come lose which should be easy to fix.

Vertigo will have a complete rebuild, with lots of improvements to the chassis included.